apple Archives - Sankaranand Balaradjou

How to check Apple AirPods case battery level in macOS

After Apple AirPods 2 was released, I got excited and decided to buy one. This is my first AirPods experience and I made this choice because Macbook Air is my primary device and my job role demands at least 4 hours calls every day.

The first thing I realized is unlike iPhone or iPad, Macbook does not have an interactive screen like below to show battery status. This is a drawback for users like me who use Android and Macbook combo.

But eventually, I figured out there is a quick way to see the battery status of not just the AirPods but also the AirPods case in macOS. As soon as you connect your AirPods to Macbook, hover over the Bluetooth icon in your mac, choose your connected AirPods, then it will display the battery level of both your left and right Pods.

But here is a catch, if you want to see the battery level of your AirPods case, just take only the right Pod and place it in your ear, while leaving the left AirPod still in the case, now follow the above steps to hover over the icon. Tada ! you can see the case battery level as well. Try to disconnect and connect again if it does not work.

Unfortunately, this is not straightforward and I wish Apple takes into account the feedback and provides us an intuitive screen like in iOS for macOS.

Jailbreaking your iphone, ipad and ipod touch. Is it safe to do ?

There is a misconception going about jailbreaking the latest iOS 5 devices. People say it will void your warranty and should do it only after the warranty period. Recently Apple is insisting application developers to create apps which detect modified handsets. Some apps keep popping up saying ” Jailbreak detected. App cannot run on this device.” . Jail breaking is legal but it does not cover the warranty and will void your warranty ! So should you jailbreak ? When you ask this question yourself, you need to understand what jailbreaking is and the necessity why you want to jailbreak ?

Jailbreaking is just a process of removing the restrictions posed on a device. Just consider entering a country without a visa. Each and every app developed for ios device should go for a process of approval by Apple before they are listed in itunes. So inorder to enable more functionality and to install custom applications, we involve in the process of jailbreaking our devices. Usually a custom community Cydia is available for ios which acts as a platform for apps market for jailbreak devices. I came across some of the custom apps and have to adhere their functions and how useful they are. My favourite one was the bluetooth dialup network for ipod touch which enables me to use my ipod touch with 3g facility by bridging it with my blackberry.

The misconception with the users is that the current iOS 5 upgrade sends a signal to Apple saying that your iphone was jailbreaked and should ban this user from any support or warranty. This does not work that way, if you ask me i would tell it was just a rumor ! Atleast not now ! I have to agree that apple is trying to strengthen its device with a lot of security fixes. Jailbreak can be possible because of the security exploits and holes in the current software version but for every update Apple is trying to fix it up, we end up with a good jailbreaking tool 🙂

So my advice is if you really want to use some extra apps and try more out of your device, jailbreak your device but don’t forget to take a backup before you do it. But don’t forget just in case if you want to send your device for a warranty you need to restore it with the original firmware !